Field
This disclosure is generally related to a document management system. More specifically, this disclosure is related to generating a relationship visualization that displays how two information entities are related.
Related Art
Some file systems or document management systems include a search mechanism to locate documents that mention a search phrase within the document or its attributes. The generated search results may indicate the title and file path for the matching documents, and may sort the matching documents based on a certain file attribute.
Unfortunately, these search mechanisms can generate significantly large search results that can easily overwhelm the user. To make matters worse, the type of information provided in the search results often does not help the user in remembering or otherwise identifying which document in the search results includes the information he is searching for. The visualization for the search results is typically designed to display file attributes for the document (e.g., a file location and/or file type), but it does not display other valuable information related to the document that can help the user make a decision.
Further, these search mechanisms may use a pattern-matching operation to find a document that mentions a desired phrase. However, the user cannot use these search mechanisms to find a phrase that he does not remember, such as a person's name or telephone number that the user does not remember. If the user desires to find a person's telephone number, the user may need to perform a search for that person's name, and hope that he can find the telephone number in one of the documents in the search results. If the user does not remember the person's name, the user may find it even more challenging to conduct his search.
Therefore, the search and visualization capabilities of a typical document management system do not always guide the user directly to the information he is searching for. In some instances, the user may need to open several documents in the search results, one after another, to view their contents until the user finds the desired document or information.